The Portland daily press., 1887-03-22
THE PATENT OFFICE.
It's origin and Early Administration.

No one Of our National institutions is more
peculiarly American than is the Patent Of
fee. Its tremendous growth reflects the
growth Of the country more forcibly, per-
haps, than does any other department at
Washington. The story Of the beginning and
rise of the patent Office is one of absorbing
interest. Among our historians no one has
put the facts in this case more succinctly.
and at the same time impaired to them their
due Importance, than has the brilliant Nc
Master. In the second volume Of his "His-
tory Of the People OF the United States" un-
der the date Of 1893, the historian relates
the story of the Patent Office In these words
The glory of 1t belongs 70 Jefferson. He
inspired 1t, and long took so deep an interest
in It's workings that he may well be called
the founder of the American Patent Office
The growth Of it is marvellous. To one who
wanders through the corridors of that mag
nifcent building and behOlds the army
of clerks and draughtsmen, and the hun
dreds Of thousands of models there displayed,
it seems scarcely to believed that when 1900
came, one man cid all the clerical labor, and
dozen pigeon-holes held all the records of
the Office For each of the patents which
then existed a thousand have since been is
sued nor does 1t seem too much to say that
before 1900 shall have been reached this ratio
The law of April 10th, 1890, established the
Office, made the Secretary OF State, the Secre-
tary Of War, and the Att0rney-General a
board Of commissioners, and bade them ex-
anime the claims Of inventors and grant pa
tents to the deserving. SO vigorously did the
board cOnstrue the law that, In 1890, but three
were issued. In 1871 the number rose to
thirty-three The next year 1t fell to eleven.
In 1895. when Jefferson went out of Office,
twenty were sealed. The mement claim
t~kr - t.tn
would summon Knox and Randolph The
three would meet, 60 over the application
most critically, and scrutinize each point o.
the specification with the utmost care. II
they threw out the claim, the decision wa
final. The inventor had no appeal. IL the,
determine that patent should issue, the pa.
| per was signed by the President and Attor
ney-General, and the inventor paid down
| small fee. For receiving and filing the peti
| tion, fifty cents; for filing specifications, tel
| cents the hundred words; for making out thu
| patent, two dollars; for affixing the grea
seal, one dollar; for indorsing the day Of de.
/ livery, twenty cents. 1t was long. dOeu,
/ ment for which the patentee was charged
| four dollars and half.
But the men whose clumsy machines and
crude devices had been thrown out raised a
/ great clam0r. The power OF the board was
1 too great 1t was outrageous that their de.
| cisiOn should be final. There ought to be an
| appeal Jefferson c0mbated this, but the CRY
/ Was nedTU. Inc law Oh liJU was TcNlecu III
| 1898, and revised for the worse. The duty
| of granting patents was lodged with the Sec
/ reUary of State alone. He was forbidden tC
reject any application not likely to be hurt
| full to the interests of the people, and the
cost Of patents was greatly increased.
| For forty three years this law continued II
| force. Then the evils which grew up under
| IL became so rank that Congress was again
forced to interfere. Five months later De
cember 18th, 1886, the Post-Otflce building
ht1rr. .146 10. flsaf
seven thousand models of the Patent Office,
by far the noblest collection the world could
| then show. When the next fire occurred, for
| ty-0ne years after, the Patent Office had OBJ
tanned a building of its own, and the sever
| thousand models of 1886 had become tw.
| hundred thousand in 1877. 1t Is deeply TO bI
lamented that, of the many thousands de-
| stroyed in 1896, so few have ever been re
| placed Not even complete list of then
can now be had
Yet, most happily, it is not impossible L
/ form, from the fragments of information gath
| cred elsewhere, some conception of the in
/ genuity of our eountrymen. One had inyen
/ ted grain-cutter, dOck-cleaner and
| threshing-machine. No precise account o
/ his work has come down to us. But we ar
/ told with his reaper one man could cut fv
/ acres of wheat q day, and that his threshe
| could easily beat out as much grain In twelve
/ hours as forty men. Another had devised
and put up a water-mill for roping and spin
/ ming cOmbed wool and tiax. A 1hird had In
| vented a eandle-machine, had made candles
from the lees Of the right whale, and hat
seen his work displayed, and warmly praised
| in long memoir by the President Of the Ag
ricultural Society Of New York. Atourth hal
discovered way Of turning iron into steel
| A fifth had eneased himself in a strange ap
paratus, had surprised the fishermen Of New
London by going down in four fathoms o.
water, had walked upon the bottom and eomi
up after being three minutes In the sea.
sixth took out patent for machine whicl
has made his name famous ever since. Tn
inventor was Whitney, and the machine h
| called the cotton gin.